For over 25 years, Lisette Nieves has served in a variety of cross-sector leadership positions. She is an experienced social entrepreneur, public sector leader, and scholar. She is currently the President of the Fund for the City of New York (FCNY), an institution charged with developing and helping to implement innovations in policy, programs, practices and technology in order to advance the functioning of government and nonprofit organizations in New York City and beyond. 

Prior to the Fund, Lisette was the Director of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and a Full Clinical Professor at NYU Steinhardt where she co-led the design and implementation of a new doctoral program in Leadership and Innovation. She remains a Distinguished Clinical Instructor with NYU. Lisette holds a B.A. from Brooklyn College, a B.A./M.A. from the University of Oxford, an M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, and a doctorate with distinction in Higher Education Management at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a Truman Scholar, Rhodes Scholar, Aspen Pahara Fellow, and a Richard P. Nathan Public Policy Fellow.

She also served as an Obama appointee on the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, a Biden appointee on the National Board of AmeriCorps, and a Secretary of the Navy appointee to the Education for Seapower Advisory Board, where she chairs the Naval Community College Subcommittee.

Her board affiliations include the Edwin Gould Foundation, The New York Public Library, NewSchools Venture Fund, Jobs for the Future (JFF). NYC Mayor Adams appointed Lisette co-chair of the New York City Future of Worker(s) Taskforce and a Commissioner on the NYC Charter Revision Commission.